John Clayton, a longtime journalist who covered the National Football League (NFL), has died in Washington on Friday after a short illness, the Seattle Seahawks said in a statement. He was 67. No specific cause of death was immediately released. Nicknamed “The Professor,” Clayton spent more than two decades covering the Pittsburgh Steelers for The Pittsburgh Press and the Seattle Seahawks for The News Tribune in Tacoma. In 1995, he moved to ESPN, becoming one of the lead NFL writers for the company. Clayton appeared on TV and radio for ESPN and worked at the company for more than 20 years. In 2017, Clayton, a native of Pittsburgh, reportedly left the cable news sports channel. “Long before he became an ESPN icon, John might have been the best news-breaking team beat reporter of his generation, the type who could sit on a story for months and then break it before …